BC Cycle Tourism Society builds its programs on evidence. Along the way we produce datasets and reports that may be useful to trail organizations, researchers, tourism planners, and advocates.
Everything on this page is preliminary. It is working material — shared early because it may be useful, not because it is finished. Figures and classifications are subject to revision.
The research is led by Heather Piwowar (Google Scholar · ORCID · LinkedIn).
Working on something related, or want to be kept in the loop as we release new reports and datasets? I'd love to hear from you: heather@bccycletourism.ca
A comparative database of 693 multi-day cycling routes worldwide, built to understand what makes routes succeed and how British Columbia compares.
Route inventory (Excel) — 693 routes with length, surface, terrain, country, and parent network.
Research bibliography (Excel) — 619 studies, reports, and articles about these routes: economic impact studies, visitor surveys, and planning documents, with links.
Two reports prepared as input to a Sea-to-Sky rail feasibility study, April 2026.
Rail and Trail as Complementary Infrastructure (PDF) — Global evidence that rail and trail are mutually reinforcing: the trail generates rail passengers, and rail service amplifies the trail's economic output. Case studies from North America, Europe, Australasia, and East Asia.
Squamish–D'Arcy Bikeway: Cycle Tourism Economic Research (PDF) — The economic case for a bikeway on the corridor: comparable-trail benchmarks, visitor spending evidence, First Nations connections, emergency access, and extension scenarios. Companion appendices (PDF) with operational recommendations and full references.
Not everything we test has a spreadsheet. Cycle touring gear favourites: field-tested over tens of thousands of kilometres, sample size of one.
The research here uses AI assistance (Claude models, Anthropic) for data collection, analysis, and writing. Feel free to ask for more details if you are interested.